Conventionally, in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a toner container having a cylindrical shape (toner bottle) has been used by being detachably attached to the image forming apparatus (for example, see Patent Document 1).
In Patent Document 1, a toner container (toner bottle), which is detachably attached to an image forming apparatus main body, is mainly formed of a container main body and a cap section. A spiral protrusion is formed on an inner circumferential surface of the container main body, and when the container main body is rotated, toners contained in the container main body are carried to an opening part of the toner container. The cap section is connected to the container main body and is supported by the image forming apparatus main body without being rotated by the rotation of the container main body. The toners output from the opening part of the container main body are output from a toner output opening of the cap section. The toners output from the toner output opening are supplied to a developing device.
In addition, a shutter member for opening or closing the toner output opening is formed in the cap section of the toner container. The shutter member opens or closes the toner output opening by being interfaced with attaching or detaching of the toner container to or from the image forming apparatus main body.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-287404
In a case where the toner container in Patent Document 1 is compared with a toner container without having a cap section, when the toner container in Patent Document 1 is replaced with a new one, stains caused by toners can be decreased. That is, since a toner outlet is opened or closed by interfacing with an attaching or detaching operation of the toner container, a user is prevented from being stained by the toners due to a direct touch of the toner outlet. In addition, since the direction of the toner outlet is a direct downward direction, an amount of toners remaining near the toner outlet may be small as a result of being dropped with the toner's own weight when the toners have been almost consumed (at the toner end time). With this, the stains caused by the toners near the toner outlet can be decreased when the container is replaced with a new one.
However, a slight amount of toners is adhered onto a part surrounding the toner outlet, and the adhered toners are dropped into the image forming apparatus main body when the toner container is replaced with a new one. In particular, stains caused by the dropped toners have been remarkable at the part surrounding a toner supplying opening of the image forming apparatus main body. Consequently, an unsatisfying impression has been given to the user.
In order to solve the above problem, it is conceivable that a shutter member is formed to open or close the toner outlet by rotating the toner container in a state where the toner container is attached to the image forming apparatus main body and a main body side shutter is formed to open or close a toner supplying opening of the image forming apparatus main body.
However, in this case, in order not to generate a toner supplying fault to the image forming apparatus main body, the main body side shutter of the image forming apparatus main body must be surely opened together with an opening operation of the shutter member of the toner container, and the toner outlet of the toner container must be surely connected to the toner supplying opening of the image forming apparatus.